


Taster's Choice

by thesocraticstare



Category: Silicon Valley (TV)
Genre: Background Dinesh/Gilfoyle if you squint, Light Dom/sub, M/M, Multi, Oral Sex, Past Abuse (basically Jared's life and times), Sexual Orientation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-12
Updated: 2017-11-12
Packaged: 2019-02-01 05:17:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12698136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesocraticstare/pseuds/thesocraticstare
Summary: “We’ve been caught in a deadlock. A dead heat, one might even say. On the merits of the finest things in life… sensual bounties, the pleasures of the flesh, not to be too crude.”





	1. Chapter 1

Male bonding rituals, Richard mused, were always a little fucked up. Fortunately no one had ever compelled him to eat a biscuit covered in come—or a Wheat Thin, come to think of it—but he had seen the tail end of a couple too many hazing rituals before he finally dropped out of college.

Those Stanford memories were part of the reason why he found himself particularly disturbed by Gilfoyle and Dinesh’s latest escapades.  _ Well,  _ he mentally amended, _ Gilfoyle, Dinesh, and Jared's escapades— _ although, to be honest, he wasn't sure quite how his head of business development had managed to become involved. Dinesh and Gilfoyle’s long-running cold war was nothing notable in itself, usually; the exceptions started to kick in when they moved from the usual semi-flirtatious insults and petty arguments over each other's geek virility and started developing new, perverse games to prank each other with. 

He was in the kitchen, pouring himself a bowl of cereal, when he first became aware of the new developments. It had been a long night ( _Or morning_ , he thought, blearily looking at the blue sky outside the window) of coding, and he barely noticed Dinesh, over on the other side of the room, sidling up to Jared, making himself the first of his daily mugs of herbal tea.  

“Hey, Jared,” Dinesh said. Jared perked up immediately; Richard recognized that how-can-I-be-of-service look from all the way across the room. He tried not to even acknowledge the weird surge of jealousy it tugged up within him, seeing Jared turn his guileless blue eyes on someone else, even one of the guys.

“Dinesh! What can I do for you, my man?”

“Listen, Gilfoyle left his phone out last night, and I’m…” here his voice slipped to a bare whisper, and Richard, brain still half-fogged with fatigue, yawned and turned his attention to his bowl of cereal. A moment later, though, a flash at the corner of his vision brought him back to the scene.

Dinesh was holding up something Richard vaguely recognized as Gilfoyle’s iPhone, and Jared… well. Jared was leaning in, over the counter, and licking it. His eyes were shut, his mouth open. His tongue glistened. Richard dropped his spoon into the bowl with a clatter. 

“Hah! Thanks, man,” Dinesh fairly crowed. Jared just smiled. Richard, unsettled, found himself entirely put off finishing the rest of his breakfast.

 

—

 

If it had just been the one occurrence, Richard might have ignored it, despite the way his mind kept returning to the wet flash of Jared’s mouth. But later that afternoon, he stumbled into the kitchen to see another unasked-for vision: Dinesh had somehow captured one of Gilfoyle’s craft beers and was holding it aloft, up to Jared’s mouth, for him to lick up the label, the neck, condensation dripping down the side of the bottle…

Richard came back to himself with a start, wheeling around and trying to erase the sight of Jared’s damp tongue before it insinuated itself permanently in his brain. He couldn’t get back into the code he was working on, instead switching back and forth between subreddits while Dinesh settled in to gloat. Eventually Gilfoyle filtered in, settling in at his work station while Dinesh’s eyes flickered over to him with increasing frequency. Richard tried to get himself back into the zone, but there was no helping it.

Finally, after who knew what arcane preparations, Gilfoyle opened his beer with an effortless gesture. Dinesh sniggered. Richard’s spine stiffened a little.

“Hey Gilfoyle. How’s it taste?” Gifoyle immediately paused with the bottle a few inches from his lips. He cocked his eyebrows in (for him) a deeply confused expression.

“Jared’s been all over that shit! That’s right. Your phone? Sanitize that shit. I got that boy to put his dirty mouth all over that. All up in your crevices and devices.”

Richard was mortified, but Gilfoyle was his usual unruffled self. “And why, pray tell, should I be concerned by this.”

“Do I need to remind you? His mouth has been all over innumerable vaginas.” 

“Hey, wait—” Richard started to interrupt.

“First of all, are you trying to suggest the female sex organ is in some way dirty. Secondly, if Jared’s mouth has been all over anything, it’s definitely dicks. Let’s be real.”

Now Richard was sure he didn’t like where this was going. “Hey, guys, not at work, okay, we’ve talked about this—” he started again.

“This is possibly the most virginal thing you’ve ever done, and I’m including the literal act of refusing sex with women in that assessment,” Gilfoyle continued unabated. “Besides which, Jared’s probably setting up the optimal conditions for a gloryhole right now—”

“Hey, hey—” Richard put in, but Dinesh was laughing.

“Listen, Jared is definitely a bisexual of some sort. You were there! You saw his female conquest—”

“Conquest?” Gilfoyle snorted.

“Look—” Richard added weakly. “Let’s not get into trying to—I don’t know, out anybody—”

“I mean… no homo,” Dinesh said. “Also, no offense. Not sure which order those two statements should go in to be the least offensive? But that’s literally not the point. He’s like that one imperial Roman from  _ Spartacus_. You know, ‘I like oysters… and snails.’ Right?” There was a deafening silence. “Okay, fuck you guys! Nobody cares about classic cinema, apparently! What I’m saying is, Jared’s out there eating pussy  _ and _ sucking dick, it’s just a fact.”

“Okay, stop,” Richard said. 

“No need to get so defensive,” Gilfoyle said, eyeing Richard in a way he didn’t quite understand but didn’t appreciate, either. 

“Look, I don’t need some HR nightmare on my hands,” Richard said, “Not to mention, why should it matter whether Jared is… is bisexual, or whatever—”

“Who’s bisexual!” Erlich always brought a triumphal tone to his entrances, and as he strode into the workroom, trailing a cloud of perfumed smoke, Richard cringed anew. 

“We’re talking about Jared’s sexual conquests,” Dinesh said with special emphasis. Richard wished fervently that he hadn’t left his noise-cancelling headphones in his room.

“Bisexuality is the orientation of the gods themselves. I can’t imagine our khaki-clad associate knows anything of those empyrean heights… but perhaps… there’s some way of plumbing his depths, so to speak,” Erlich considered. “Well, what’s really the question at hand? Is he down to munch the carpet? Or simply let all and sundry fuck his face?”

Richard felt his face heating up and sank lower in his chair. “Yeah,” Dinesh chimed in, “Which is better, going down on a woman or a dude? These are like, questions you would ask a modern-day Tiresias. Tiresias? No? Anybody? Fuck you guys! Do you even read the Western canon?”

He was cut short by Jared’s entrance back into the room. Richard glanced over despite himself, his eyes as always drawn by his CFO’s— _And friend_ , his mind supplied helpfully, unhelpfully—bright blue gaze. He wanted to warn Jared what was coming with a twisted lift of his eyebrows, but Jared just crossed over to sit down next to him, smiling encouragingly. 

“Jared! Just the man we need,” Erlich enthused. Gilfoyle looked at him over the top of his glasses. Richard felt his blush deepening. “We’ve been caught in a deadlock. A dead heat, one might even say. On the merits of the finest things in life… sensual bounties, the pleasures of the flesh, not to be too crude.”

Jared’s eyes slid over to Richard’s for a moment, before he smiled over at Erlich. “O...kay!” he said, motioning him on as he booted up his desktop.

“We need someone who can break the tie. Who can truly speak to both sides… now. Jared. You’re no doubt familiar with the Greek vice?”

Jared looked surprised. “Are you speaking metaphorically?”

“Always. Listen. The kiss of love, the… amuse-bouche. Probably. Tell us, friend. In your erotic wanderings—”

“Oh god,” Richard muttered to himself.

“—what have you found to be the most satisfactory? The male of the species? Or the female?”

Jared looked only a little bit taken aback. “Are you referring to… what I think you are?” he asked. Erlich nodded sagely. Both Gilfoyle and Dinesh looked on with expectation.

“Well… My aunt did always used to say I had an oral fixation.”

“Okay, taking a sharp left at disturbing territory… the question is preferences. A sort of qualia over quantity, if you will. Anyway, specifically, your preferences. It should go without saying we all know you like giving head.” Erlich’s tone was entirely unconcerned, but Richard shuddered and tried to sink further within the protection of his hoodie. 

“Well!” Jared sounded surprised but as usual unoffended. “I don’t like to pick favorites. It seems uncharitable.” 

Erlich regarded him expectantly. “But? This isn’t a charity, we’re a for-profit. Although, if we could figure out some way of getting our hands on a 501C3 tax exemption… anyway, pick one. Pussy or dick. Men or women.”

Jared frowned. “Listen, guys, assigning gender markers to genitalia is pretty outmoded. So I don’t think I can be a party to that. Sorry!” He looked, if anything, genuinely a little apologetic. 

“But it’s not about body parts, at the end of the day.” He hastened to continue, prompted by Erlich’s eye-roll. “You know, whether you’re performing fellatio or cunnilingus, it’s really about the connection you have with your partner. Just really giving them an experience, giving them that pleasure… feeling them take control of the situation, maybe. Directing how they want it.” His hand crept up and touched the edge of his collar, then he swallowed visibly, throat bobbing, and looked directly over at Richard, who had been trying, unsuccessfully, to conceal himself as much as possible behind his laptop screen.

“But at any rate, I’ve said enough.” He smiled encouragingly at Richard. 

Despite some further badgering from Dinesh and Erlich, the conversation went no further, and eventually the workroom settled back into a concentrated quiet of keystrokes and occasional curses. Richard turned in for an early night, begging off from an invitation from Erlich to attend another funding meet-and-greet. But later that night, as he lay alone in bed, he couldn’t get the image of Jared’s sweet mouth out of his mind. Of course he was able to please women. Richard could imagine his tongue against a girl’s clit, his long nose pressed into her pubes… he shook himself, violently, told himself sternly to stop it immediately. Staunchly ignoring the semi pushing up his thin sheets, he settled himself to an unrestful sleep. 


	2. Chapter 2

Disturbed nights always left Richard feeling sweaty, unsettled, and fatigued. He spent an hour lying on his stomach in bed, entering increasingly more convoluted search terms on YouPorn, until he finally gave up and went to shower and get himself some breakfast.

He didn’t see anyone in the kitchen that morning, which was strangely both a relief and a disappointment. As he sat down with a bowl of cereal, he heard the faint strains of Sarah McLachlan drifting through the house all the way from the server room. This, he recognized, was Jared’s usual early-morning music when he was feeling at peace—his playlist selections tended to more obscure Lilith Fair deep cuts depending on his mood. Richard crunched through his breakfast, musing on the situation. He wanted to lend Jared a sense of his support, without making it seem—too weird, of course, but also without revealing what exactly was going on with everybody feeling the right to speculate on Jared’s sexual orientation. He washed up, making up his mind, and walked across the house to the garage door.

He knocked once, twice. The soft acoustic music shut off abruptly. Jared opened the door, looking down at Richard delightedly.

“Richard! Please, come in. I’m sorry for being in a state of deshabille. But please make yourself at home! I mean, it is your home, of course…”

Richard closed the door behind him and walked over to where Jared had his bed and belongings set up, in one corner of the combination garage/server room. He came to a stop in front of the armchair, but didn’t sit. Jared was wearing a blindingly white t-shirt and pajama bottoms and he tried to immediately forget about how thin the layers of cloth between their two dicks would surely be.

“Hey, Jared. Good… uh, good morning. I just wanted to come by and uh. How are you doing?” He winced a little at his own awkwardness. This was _Jared_ , for fuck’s sake—someone he should have no reason to be awkward around, really the opposite, if anything.

“I’m well! Thank you!” Jared beamed at him. He blushed a little.

“Good! I’m glad. I’m glad to hear that. I, uh… I just wanted to come over and um. Let you know. I.” Jared regarded him with some concern, stepped a little closer to him. His hair was still a little mussed with sleep. Richard swallowed. 

“I just wanted to let you know, Dinesh and Gilfoyle were doing some dumb thing to get you to put your—touch your tongue to things. To like? Mess with each other? And all that stuff yesterday with Erlich asking you about—like, sexual, uh, preferences…” he stammered. “I just… I don't think it's right. That they were involving you in their stupid jerk-off games. And trying to—humiliate you, or whatever—”

“Is that what you think they were doing?” Jared asked. He sounded, confusingly, much less concerned than Richard had assumed he would be. 

“I mean… They think it’s like. A game.” His confusion deepened when Jared smiled. 

“I don’t mind being part of their game,” Jared said. “I know they think I’m a bit of an odd duck. And maybe I am, a bit! I’m pretty comfortable with my own sexuality.” He was still smiling gently at Richard, who fidgeted under his gaze.

He couldn’t hold back. “They wanted to know. About you and girls and like—also uh—also guys. Whether you’re, uh—bisexual.”

“Well, actually, I consider myself panromantic… not that there’s anything wrong with identifying as bisexual. I just feel that this label is more encompassing of non-binary genders.” Jared took another step a little closer.

Richard nodded, tried to make it look like he knew what that meant. “Okay. I… okay. I just want you to know. It doesn’t matter to me what your… s-sexual orientation is. Or anything like that. In case—I mean obviously my opinion on that isn’t important anyway, why would it be—”

“No! Richard—you know I value your opinion. Highly,” Jared said. One of his hands came up as if to touch Richard’s shoulder, but he hesitated, lowered it again. “I’m… honored that you’d come here and tell me this. It’s not something I ever expected, to be honest.”

Richard nodded. If he were rational, this would be the perfect time to end the conversation, head back inside, get back into his ridiculously narrow bed and sleep the sleep of the innocent. But his body, his voice, had other ideas, seemingly. 

“The guys were also talking a lot about—uh. Giving. Um—head. Like, oral. You know.” Jared’s eyes widened slightly. “And like, just a lot about how you’d like to be the, like—receptive—partner. But—I think. It should only matter if you… if you like it. I mean. Whatever you’re into. As long as you’re—you know, that it’s what you want.”

Jared’s eyes were practically glowing when Richard managed to come to a stumbling halt. “That’s so—evolved,” he said. Sometimes Richard worried that Jared’s idolization of him would lead them into disaster; he couldn’t square this version of himself, reflected in Jared’s wide-eyed gaze, with what he knew to be true from just last night, his furtive obsession mingled with Jared’s adoring submission.

“Richard,” Jared murmured. He startled back to attention, but Jared was stepping closer to him, raising his hands tentatively to the level of the zipper on his hoodie. “Could I… oh, sometimes it’s harder to explain than it is to just demonstrate… and I would love to be the one to provide this—this service for you…”

Richard’s eyes widened; he stayed stock-still as Jared slowly pulled down on the zip, sighing softly. Then Jared was going to his knees, and Richard had the sense that things had progressed inexorably beyond his control. His dick twitched in his jeans and he cursed, inwardly, but made no move to stop Jared’s hands going to his fly.

“Richard. If, at any moment, you change your mind… just tell me. You can do anything you want to me, and—I’ll have to obey you. I will.”

The whole time Jared was speaking, he was briskly divesting Richard of his clothes: unzipping his jeans, pulling down his boxers. Richard winced inwardly as his dick sprang free, undeniably interested in the proceedings. 

“Wait! I mean,” he started, lamely, as Jared let out a soft sigh, eyes on his erection; then he stilled, waiting expectantly for Richard to continue. “Don’t you… I’m not…”

Jared smiled, stroked his bare thighs gently: petting down the reddish hair as if he were a domestic animal to be calmed. Richard’s hands came up, hovered uncertainly in the vicinity of Jared’s head.

“You could hold onto my ears if you like! You know, one of my foster-fathers’ nicknames for me was ‘Jughead.’ He used to say, ‘There must be a way of putting those jughandles to good use—’” 

Richard reached out without thinking, putting his hand over Jared’s mouth. Jared’s eyes, electrically blue, fastened on his for a moment; then they slipped shut, and he felt Jared’s lips against his palm, kissing him. He slid his hand down, to the sharp corner of Jared’s jaw, and for a moment they just regarded each other in silence.

He was simultaneously, perversely desperate to protect Jared—keep him away from everyone, anyone who wished him harm, who had seen his beautiful, unfettered receptivity and hurt him for it, used it against him—and to devour him, take him completely—take everything Jared so willingly offered up to him and use him up, own him entirely. His hands shook slightly against the soft skin of Jared's face, holding him still; but he felt he himself was frozen in place by the abject intensity of Jared's gaze. His dick bobbed a little just millimeters from Jared's lips. 

“Are you asking me to do that to you,” Richard whispered. Jared's gaze dropped, very slowly, from Richard's eyes to his dick, growing a little wet at the tip. 

“Oh, Richard. Only if you want to.”

Richard petted Jared's cheek, tentatively and then less so when Jared's eyes slipped shut, when he leaned into the unpracticed caress. He stroked Jared's cheekbone, his temple, his eyebrow. Finally he let himself touch the curve of Jared's left ear, running his finger over it and down, very lightly pressing against the velvet skin just behind it. Jared let out a tiny sound. His eyes were still closed, his lips parted. Richard thought he might go straight out of his head. 

“You're so gentle,” Jared murmured, wonderingly. It was too much. Richard brought his fingers down to the hinge of Jared's jaw, drawing him up just enough that they touched, again—the sensation of Jared's mouth on him, opening for him, his tongue pressing out and licking him, kittenishly, just the tiniest lick—he groaned, reached back, curled his hand around Jared's ear and held him in place while he pushed deeper into that accepting, welcoming heat. Not forcing him, just holding him. 

“Oh fuck. Jared. Do you—do you like it?”

“Mm-hmmm.” 

“Show me. Show me how much—” Richard swallowed convulsively against the words bubbling up from his throat. “Show me how much you like it.” Jared moaned around him, the vibration making Richard tense up, afraid he was already on the edge of coming in Jared's mouth. 

“Look at you. Greedy for it,” Richard whispered, face burning at his own words. Jared’s eyes flicked up to meet his and he hissed in a breath through his teeth. Every touch of Jared’s soft mouth felt like a brand on his dick, like this was the first blowjob he’d ever gotten, burning away any residual memory of previous partners. Jared gently wrapped one hand around the base of his dick, sucking on just the head; his eyes were a little hazy, slightly unfocused. 

“Oh, shit—fuck—oh Christ, Jared, are you like this with girls too?” Richard had a lightning-quick flash of sense— _ Maybe this is getting into weird territory— _ before the wet heat of Jared's mouth robbed him of the last lingering shred of self-censorship. “Ohhh, fuck. You are. Aren't you. You let them fuck your mouth like this too. They can tell—they can tell you love eating pussy. Just by looking at you.” Jared moaned around him and Richard pulled back for a moment, dick throbbing, afraid he was about to come, before pushing back in, his grasp on Jared's ears tightening. “Oh holy fuck.  _ Fuck.  _ Jared. I'm gonna—oh, Jesus. You feel  _ so  _ good. Do they—do they fucking tell you that—do they make sure you know—all those girls—” 

He had to break off, had to try to force himself to breathe, but instead he bent forward over Jared's bowed head, cupping the back of his skull and thrusting shallowly into his mouth. Jared's hands were clutching his hips, not trying to restrain him but just holding him, maybe the only things holding him together, keeping him from flying apart. Richard's fingers clenched suddenly in Jared's hair—he wrenched himself away, slipping out of Jared's mouth with a lascivious pop, and squeezed the base of his dick mercilessly. 

“Wait—wait—I don't wanna—’m gonna come too soon,” he panted, gasping. Jared rocked back on his heels, face tipped up, eyes pleading. His lips were wet.

“Richard—it's all right—I’ll swallow,” he started, a little hoarsely, and Richard groaned.

“Oh  _ fuck _ —no, no—I mean. I know. I know you will.” He was still gripping his own hard-on almost painfully. “I just—I wanna last. I wanna make this last. I want to give you everything you want.”

“Oh, Richard…” Richard stroked Jared's cheek again, rubbing two fingers over his lips. Pushed them into Jared's wet mouth, thrilling when Jared started sucking them, bobbing his head to take them in deeper. 

“I wanna know. If you like this. You want me to… fucking come in your mouth. Shit. I want—will you—I just want—”

“Anything. Richard. Anything, just ask me.” Jared's eyes shone up at him. 

“I want… Lick me again. Please. I wanna see—you like how you are with girls.”

“With girls?”

“When you're eating a girl out.”  _ Stupid, stupid.  _ Richard felt agonizingly aware of his jeans down around his knees, his naked dick still so hard, inches away from Jared's mouth; was certain he had just fucked this up, this, the best blow job he had ever been freakishly lucky to receive. But Jared's eyes darkened, and Richard had barely a moment to collect himself before he was leaning in again—was running his hot, unbearably practiced tongue up the length of Richard's dick, all the way from the root to the tip, sighing a little and then tracing it so softly all around the head—

“Oh, fuck. Yeah. That's… that's so fucking good—Jared—”

Jared pulled back, staring up, his eyes wild. “Put your hands in my hair. I like it when women pull my hair a little. Not too hard. Just… show me where you want me to put my mouth.” Richard groaned, sliding his fingers through Jared’s dark hair— _ So soft _ —and grasping gently at first, then a little more firmly when Jared leaned back in, licking him again, up and down and up and then more focused, licking again and again just under the head of his dick—

“Oh god. You look so good like this.” Richard pulled up on Jared’s hair— _ Not too hard _ —and then spread the fingers of his right hand over the back of his neck, pushing him down just so, breath catching when Jared took him in his mouth again, just the head at first and then more deeply, mouth slipping over his length, again, and again… 

He pulled Jared back yet again, fingers tightening in his hair as Jared tried to recapture his dick in his soft lips. “Richard,” Jared sighed, “do you want me to beg you for it—”

“Oh! No—fuck, I’m so close—I mean, do you want to? Beg? Oh god…” Jared licked him again, just the tip of his tongue, eyes closed. A thought suddenly leaped into Richard’s mind:  _ Dear Penthouse, I never thought it would happen to me… _

“Let me make you come. Richard. Don’t hold back. I know you want to—protect me…”

Richard let out a kind of strangled squawk and shoved his dick back into Jared’s accepting, yielding mouth, his whole body curling over Jared’s bowed head, hands twining in his dark hair holding him in a kind of frantic embrace—he was coming seconds later, rocking up onto the balls of his feet, Jared’s hands pressed hard against his ass, holding him in, taking him with a fierce determination.

His head was still swimming, but a moment later Richard found himself stroking Jared’s sweaty curls, realized he was keening in an almost ultrasonic whine. “God. Fuck,” he breathed, rubbing his thumb over Jared’s cheekbone, the corner of his lips, over the sensation of himself slipping out of Jared’s well-used mouth.

Jared laid his head on Richard’s thigh, his thick swallow showing the dimple that momentarily appeared in his cheek, then vanished. His lashes trembled against the bluish pale skin under his eyes. Richard had the sudden desire to curl up with him right on the floor of the server room, maybe stay there forever.  _ Why not? _

“Richard,” Jared whispered, eyes still shut. His breath stirred Richard’s damp pubic hair; he was gobsmacked, unable to recall anything as erotic. “Thank you. I wanted to… thank you.”

Here he was, half-naked, wrecked in the aftermath with his best friend, Richard reflected. He felt entirely outside of himself but at the same time, so physically satisfied he was almost levitating. He petted Jared’s hair again, memorizing the feel of it, silky against his shaking fingers.

“My… my pleasure,” he said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Many thanks to joycecarolnotes and crucialandinert for their support and suggestions!


End file.
